Man held in shooting complained about health

NEWPORT BEACH The 75-year-old man arrested in the fatal shooting of a doctor Monday has been battling health issues for years, a neighbor said Tuesday.

A neighbor of Stanwood Fred Elkus' said Elkus was often negative about his persistent health problems, and after the neighbor helped Elkus work on a motor home Sunday night, Elkus insisted he take $10 for the work and a pair of wire cutters.

“I might not be alive much longer,” James Lord, 54, said Elkus told him.

Lord said he didn't think much of the statement, knowing Elkus was often pessimistic about his health.

“I wish I could have seen the signs of it,” he said.

Elkus was taken into custody in the second-floor offices of 520 Superior Ave., at the offices of Ronald Franklin Gilbert. Gilbert was identified Tuesday by the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities said about a half-dozen shots were fired about 2:45 p.m. inside the Newport Beach medical offices. When officers arrived, Elkus was taken into custody without incident, said Kathy Lowe, spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Police Department.

Gilbert was pronounced dead in the medical office. He suffered several gunshot wounds to the chest. No one else in the complex was injured.

A former chief of Hoag Hospital's Department of Urology, Gilbert had worked in the hospital for almost 20 years, said a statement released Tuesday by Richard Afable, president and CEO of the hospital.

“Dr. Gilbert dedicated his career to serving others,” the statement read.

Today would have been his 53rd birthday.

The statement said Gilbert joined Hoag's staff in November 1993 and served as the chairman of its Urology Department from October 1998 to September 2002.

Lord said he has known Elkus about five years and would often be asked to watch over his Lake Elsinore home while Elkus attended doctor appointments.

For years, Elkus had been battling prostate health problems, he said.

“I'd always tell him things would look better,” Lord said.

On Monday night, police searched Elkus' home and took several items as evidence, Lowe said.

Authorities would not say whether Elkus was or had been Gilbert's patient. Newport Beach police officials also declined to comment on a motive, citing an investigation.

Public records show Elkus also listed an address in an apartment building in the 20000 block of El Toro Road in Lake Forest. A neighbor said Elkus had rented out two units in the building.

At the Superior Avenue offices where the shooting took place, business began to return to normalcy Tuesday morning, with patients streaming in and out of the medical offices. Several additional guards patrolled the area.

Gilbert, a 1987 graduate of UCI School of Medicine, had been a practicing physician and surgeon since 1989, the California Medical Board website shows.

The records show he had no disciplinary actions against him.

The website for Orange Coast Urology said he was married and had two children.

On Tuesday, Elkus was being held in the Men's Jail in lieu of $1 million. Arrest records listed his profession as a barber.